Reading Abbey

The Monks at Prayer: the Ruins of Time

All the splendour of this Church is now gone apart from some of the walls of the transepts in the Abbey Ruins and the adjoining school and the foundations under the Forbury Gardens. As for the tomb of the king, it may lie still undisturbed below the ground, but may have been ransacked during the demolition of the Church or in later diggings as some early but conflicting accounts claim. The massive west door stood nine metres to the west of the present memorial to Henry I and from here the foundations stretch for 137 metres into the modern prison.

A tower, possibly with a spire above, rose where the transepts crossed the nave. Certainly the Church was larger than even any modern office block and entirely dominated the little town of Reading at that time. It was built with no expense spared. High grade limestone was shipped across from Caen in northern France with poorer quality stone coming from British quarries, and this was cut into rectangular blocks for the outer and inner facing of the walls. Between these facings was a rubble core of locally mined flint held together by mortar. A careful look at the remaining walls of the south transept will show the impressions in the flint core from where the limestone facing blocks have been removed, with occasional stones still left. These ruinous and picturesque walls as they now stand are in strong contrast to their appearance at the time of the Abbey when the treasures of the Church were housed here in the south transept precious and ornately boxed Holy Relics, vestments, gold, silver and jewelled vessels and candle sticks, their richness complementing the singing of monks during the services.

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